Shortly out of Carvalhal I looked at the shoulderless road, moderate traffic, and plain landscape and commented that I did not find this northern bit of N2 "particularly safe, or interesting". The more optimistic Dodie replied that she did not feel unsafe, and look "We could buy that house" and "They are growing corn over here!" (To a Grampy those are exciting things!)
We stopped to take off one layer of clothes and proceeded placidly for about 1/2 km, before all hell broke loose. We could summarize "all hell" as the fact that there is a very deep gorge formed by the Rio Paiva, and that Castro Daire is built way up the other side of it. The road snakes down to the river crossing and then snakes up to the town. The grades are steep, and on the up hill we had to push. All that is kind of normal and we have encountered it lots in the past days. So why was this "hell"?
The first reason, as always, is the traffic. When there are many cars there is that much less room for bikes. And if the roadway is narrow, so much the worse. Next, the curves. On a narrow roadway, with traffic oncoming, cars behind you do not do well with not being able to see, because of curves. Because the cliff was on our right, it was not so bad. For riders going the other way, an outside curve would mean cars coming around the corner and possibly being immediately confronted by a bicycle in the lane. For us, going up on the cliff side, we also had the frequent lack of guardrail. That makes you want to move away from the edge, into the traffic, of course.
The gorge that was the root of the problem. As usual, the autoroute is having none of it, and crosses on a high bridge.
Motorcyclists are not usually much of a problem (despite the one that almost killed Kathleen). Travellers on two wheels like them and us have a bit of affinity for each other, and frequently wave to each other.
Kathleen ClassenThat was one of the most amazing moments of my life…and not in a good way! The only consolation is that I think the guy on the crotch rocket was as frightened as I was. I do agree, I find motorcycles are usually great on the road. Reply to this comment 11 months ago
Having reached the heights of Castro Daire and looked at the church and main square, you might think that the trials of the day were at an end. Not so. Leaving Castro Daire the road picked up where it had left off - sloping upward, curving, not so wide. We were "encouraged" on our ride by signs, which we had begun to see before Castro Daire, titled Montemuro, and giving gloomy forecasts about the extent of hills before us. My map shows that "Montemuro" is the name of a mountain range we are coming to, along with another one called Bigorne. Dodie remembered "Bigorne" as the town that is the high point of our track.
Dodie found that she mostly could not cycle the slope that we had at this point. So she ended up walking. She had been walking since the bridge below Castro Daire, so that our average speed since starting out was 3.5 km/hr. I helpfully computed that at that rate we would arrive at our destination town after 10 p.m. However I knew that a couple of things were going to happen. Firstly, the road had to relent in terms of slope. I had no facts to back this up, just blind faith. Secondly, I predicted Dodie would summon some extra power and blast up whatever hills had decided to remain.
All of these things happened. The valleys opened up a bit, not so much gorges. And Dodie managed to cycle up quite a few of the slopes. Finally there was the matter of Bigorne. It really was the top. After that it was down, down all the way to Lamego, where we had booked an apartment.
To be fair, this story which looms large in my mind, only covers 20 km from the bridge and Castro Daire up to Bigorne and about 15 km down to Lamego. But I will still say, for riders coming in either direction, this hill is something to watch out for!
The land had begun to open out, several kms beyond Castro Daire, and the traffic had fallen off - let's make some progress!
This is the sanctuary of "Our Lady of Listening". It is a pilgrimage site, but also there is an associated fair on the 3rd of August, featuring roast veal and pork.
Despite that truck in the photo, the road had calmed down totally in terms of traffic, and was no longer curvy and steep. So the day was saved and we did not have to arrive at 10 p.m.!
The big attraction for us in Lamego is the Nossa Senhora dos Remedios sanctuary. It is up 686 steps from the centre of town. We have reserved an extra day just to check it out!
From the central park of Lamego we walked up to our place by the castle. There are interesting buildings along the way. We also noticed bakeries or restaurants mentioning "Lamego Bolos". We are not sure exactly what these are, but you can bet we'll find out!
While not huge, our apartment has everything, including fridge, microwave, coffee maker, and stove. It is built right up against the castle, such that it's back wall almost touches a castle wall.
The bedroom - there is also a kitchen-sitting room with table, a sofa, and TV.
